98233Burlington, Washington

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 98233.

60out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 49% of 5,298 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 35% of 6,210 published ZIP areas62
GrowthTop 4% of 5,428 published ZIP areas80
Housing affordability5086th of 6,685 published ZIP areas61
ClimateTop 36% of 6,789 published ZIP areas74
Physical resilience5067th of 6,709 published ZIP areas31
Access6389th of 6,791 published ZIP areas58
Economic stability4149th of 6,742 published ZIP areas53
The quick read

Unemployment is 4.4% and median household income $87,614, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published ZIP profiles.

Development activity is both elevated and accelerating — 200 housing units permitted over the past twelve months, up 39% on the prior year.

Physical-risk exposure is above the national median, driven mainly by inland flooding, earthquake and coastal flooding.

At a glance

Population
17,850
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$87,614
Top 29% nationally
Density
538/sq mi
33.2 sq mi of land
Median age
39.3
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Burlington
Washington
Metro area
Mount Vernon-Anacortes, WA
Nearest major airport
BFI
67 mi · Boeing Fld/King County Intl
Median home value
$502,100
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.4% is lower than 52% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

Employment fell 0.2% over the past year, to 57,510 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$8,787$87,614Top 29%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,641$39,379Top 41%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate12.7%Top 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute25.9 minBottom 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher22.3%Bottom 47%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment57,510Top 48%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)2.3%Top 22%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.2%Top 32%June 2026
Labor force60,146Top 48%June 2026
Labor force participation63.0%Top 41%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$71,790Top 33%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$59,590Top 17%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)0.6%Top 23%June 2026
Unemployment rate4.4%Bottom 48%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202488k70k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $87,614 in the 2024 ACS 5-Year. Consecutive releases share four years of sample, so AreaProfile shows them as a record of successive estimates and does not compute a year-over-year change from them.
Largest occupations — Mount Vernon-Anacortes, WA
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Retail Salespersons1,730$39,240
Fast Food and Counter Workers1,580$36,890
Cashiers1,270$37,960
Home Health and Personal Care Aides1,200$42,690
Registered Nurses1,190$106,730
Stockers and Order Fillers900$44,300

Occupational employment and wages are published for metropolitan areas rather than for individual cities or ZIP areas, so these describe the wider labor market this location sits in. 2025 OEWS, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish labor-force data for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Burlington, WA, the city containing this ZIP code.

There are 16.7 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
6
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
16.7
across all schools here
Math proficiency
Reading proficiency
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Burlington Edison High SchoolBurlington-Edison School District1,04718.4
Lucille Umbarger ElementaryBurlington-Edison School District61915.1
Bay View ElementaryBurlington-Edison School District41816.1
West View ElementaryBurlington-Edison School District35315.3
BECCBurlington-Edison School District4723.5
Burlington-Edison Alternative SchoolBurlington-Edison School District4

59.6% of students here are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. That describes the circumstances families arrive with rather than how the schools perform, which is why AreaProfile shows it and does not score it.

Public schools only, from the NCES Common Core of Data. Schools are placed by ZIP code, so this is which schools are in this place rather than which one a particular address is zoned for — district boundaries do not follow municipal ones, and enrollment zones change. Fully virtual schools are excluded: they enroll students from across the state while reporting one administrative address, and counting them here would describe a school population this place does not have. The assessment covers grades 3 through 8, so a high school shows no proficiency figure — a dash in those columns means the test was not given at that school, not that it performed badly. Proficiency is measured against Washington’s own standard, so it compares cleanly within the state and only broadly against other states; AreaProfile therefore ranks it within state. The directory is current, while the proficiency figures are from the last school year with national coverage before the pandemic interrupted testing.

Housing & affordability

How it’s calculated →

Median rent of $1,708 takes 23% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 5.7 times median household income here, well above the historic benchmark, at a level conventionally described as seriously unaffordable.

Rent as a share of income
23.4%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
5.7×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,708
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$502,100
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income5.73Top 11%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate59.4%Bottom 16%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±3917,232Top 22%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$91$1,708Top 15%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$29,971$502,100Top 13%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income23.4%Top 20%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate7.2%Bottom 34%2024 ACS 5-Year

Both affordability measures come from the same ACS release as the income they are compared with, so the comparison is like for like. They describe housing cost against local earnings and are not a cost-of-living index — transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes are not included, and a place can look affordable here and still be expensive to live in for reasons this does not capture.

Growth & development

How it’s calculated →
Development Momentum
80/ 100
Top 4% of 5,428 published city profiles

An AreaProfile calculation combining permit volume per resident, its direction over one and three years, population change and employment growth. Permit volume alone is not the measure.

99% of recently permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes, so new supply is concentrated in apartments and condominiums rather than detached houses.

At 20.0 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US ZIP areas.

Units permitted
200
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
20.0
Top 3% nationally
Year over year
+39%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
98.5%
units in 5+ unit buildings

The Building Permits Survey is not published for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Burlington, WA, the city containing this ZIP code.

Weather & climate

5 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 69°F and January a low of 38°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 19.9 inches, including 5.4 inches of snow.

Air quality measures a median index of 26, in the Good band, and no day in the year passed 100.

30°50°70°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station WHIDBEY ISLAND NAS, 18.0 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND3.1"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index41.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation19.9"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall5.4"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low38°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high69°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10002024 calendar year
Median air quality index26.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing19°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
26
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
41
90th percentile index
Days above 100
0
unhealthy for sensitive groups

A comfortable median and a bad tail are different problems. Wildfire smoke and summer ozone show up in the worst tenth of days, not in the middle of the year.

Climate figures are thirty-year normals, not current conditions. They describe what a typical year looks like rather than what the weather is doing today. Air quality is measured rather than modelled, by EPA monitors, and published by county only where a monitor sits — roughly half the counties AreaProfile publishes have one, and the rest show nothing rather than an estimate. Air masses are regional, so a county reading describes the air over a place reasonably well, but it is still the county reading.

Physical risk

31 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are inland flooding, earthquake and coastal flooding.

Volcanic activityElevated
EarthquakeHigh
LandslideModerate
Coastal floodingHigh
Inland floodingElevated
AvalancheModerate
Heat waveModerate

Low or minimal exposure: ice storm, winter weather, wildfire, lightning, cold wave, tsunami, drought, tornado, hail, strong wind.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. ZIP values are the land-area-weighted mean of the counties the ZIP Code Tabulation Area intersects. Expected annual loss is not allocated below county level. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.

These are deaths, not offences. AreaProfile does not publish reported crime, and this is not a substitute for it — it says nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Skagit County records 4.1 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, near the middle of counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 16.7 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 32.7 per 100,000 residents in Skagit County.

Homicide
4.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
16.7
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
32.7
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
21.3
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths

Firearm deaths count every intent together, and nationally the majority are suicides rather than homicides. The two columns overlap and should not be added.

Age-adjusted rates from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC for Skagit County as a whole — these rates are not published below county level. A county can hold both a dense city centre and a suburb whose experience of it is nothing alike, so this describes the county around 98233 rather than 98233 itself. That is why AreaProfile shows these figures and does not put them in the Area Score. Where fewer than ten deaths were recorded the count is suppressed at source, and a rate built on single figures moves sharply between releases. What this measure has that reported crime does not: a death certificate is filed whether or not the local police agency submitted a return that year, so the figures stay comparable between places and over time.

What this profile does not cover

Three things people look for are missing from every AreaProfile page, and each is missing for a reason rather than by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them and the weighting is documented on the methodology page.

Reported crime
The FBI’s Crime Data Explorer is the only source for reported offences with national coverage and a published method, and it requires an API key AreaProfile does not hold. Arrest counts, news volume and commercial “safety scores” are not substituted in the meantime. What is published above under Safety is a different measurement — deaths rather than offences, from death certificates rather than police returns — and it covers no property crime at all.
Taxes
No tax dataset has met the source admission test for coverage, transparent methodology and update cadence. Nothing here is individualized tax advice.
Full cost of living
No public source publishes one with national coverage and a documented method. Housing affordability above is computed from published rent, price and income, and excludes transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes — commuting cost in particular tends to offset suburban housing savings.

Access

2 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 67 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Boeing Fld/King County IntlBFI67 mi10,007 ft
Seattle-Tacoma IntlSEA73 mi11,901 ft
Grant County IntlMWH166 mi13,503 ft

Airport identity, position and runway data come from the FAA. “Major airport” is an AreaProfile classification — a public-use civil airport with a paved runway of at least 8,000 feet — not an FAA hub designation. Distances are straight-line, not driving distance.

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Area Score
60
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Data & methodology

Used forSourceSource periodUpdated
AccessFederal Aviation Administration
Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service
NASR current cycle28-day NASR cycle
Physical riskFederal Emergency Management Agency
National Risk Index
National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0)Periodic dataset versions (v1.20.0 current)
ClimateNOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly)
1991-2020 NormalsEvery ten years (next release follows the 2001–2030 period)
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Local Area Unemployment Statistics
June 2026Monthly
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
2025 OEWSAnnual (spring release)
DemographicsU.S. Census Bureau
Population Estimates Program
July 1, 2024 estimateAnnual (vintage released each spring)
DevelopmentU.S. Census Bureau
Building Permits Survey
12 months ending July 2026Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month
Demographics, Housing, Income, JobsU.S. Census Bureau
American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File)
2024 ACS 5-YearAnnual (5-year estimates released each December)
safetyU.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics
Provisional county-level mortality by intent
April, 2025 to March, 2026Quarterly, with a rolling twelve-month window alongside complete calendar years
schoolsU.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics
Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments
2024-25 school yearDirectory annually; assessment results as EDFacts releases them
ClimateU.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Air Quality System
Daily Air Quality Index by county
2024 calendar yearAnnually, once a calendar year is complete

Profile recalculated August 30, 2026. Recalculation is not the same as new source data — each figure above shows the period its source actually covers. Read the full methodology or browse every source.

98233 vs Burlington

How this ZIP area compares with Burlington as a whole. Both figures come from the same ACS release, so the comparison is like for like.

98233
Burlington
Median household income
$87,614
vs
$80,475
Per capita income
$39,379
vs
$36,525
Population density
538/sq mi
vs
2,337/sq mi
Median home value
$502,100
vs
$466,400
Median gross rent
$1,708
vs
$1,746
Homeownership rate
59.4%
vs
44.5%
Bachelor's degree or higher
22.3%
vs
20.5%
Poverty rate
12.7%
vs
14.5%
Median age
39.3
vs
35.7

Some demographic statistics use Census ZIP Code Tabulation Areas, which approximate but do not exactly match USPS ZIP delivery geography. See the methodology for how AreaProfile maps between them.